Sankey’s Favorite Hymns and Songs

By Ira D. Sankey

In 1906 Ira D. Sankey wrote the story of his life, and listed many of his favorite hymns and songs. This book contains a selection of sixty from Sankey’s favorites, together with his stories of how they came to be written and how they were used to bless many people. We hope that our selection, which contains old favorites like Abide with Me and some little known hymns and songs, like the delightful I Hear the Saviour Say, will bring a blessing to many, and perhaps introduce congregations and worship bands to new experiences in worship today. And if the service leader repeats some of the associated stories recorded here by Sankey, there may well be an additional blessing!

• Language: English
• Publisher: White Tree Publishing
• Release date: Jan 29, 2020
• ISBN: 9781912529667

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About the Book

In 1906 Ira D. Sankey wrote the story of his life, and listed many of his favorite hymns and songs. This book contains a selection of sixty from Sankey’s favorites, together with his stories of how they came to be written and how they were used to bless many people. We hope that our selection, which contains old favorites like Abide with Me and some little known hymns and songs, like the delightful I Hear the Saviour Say, will bring a blessing to many, and perhaps introduce congregations and worship bands to new experiences in worship today. And if the service leader repeats some of the associated stories recorded here by Sankey, there may well be an additional blessing!

Sankey’s Favorite Hymns and Songs

A Selection and their Stories

Ira D Sankey

This edition ©White Tree Publishing 2020

eBook ISBN: 978-1-912529-66-7

Published by

White Tree Publishing

Bristol

UNITED KINGDOM

More books on www.whitetreepublishing.com

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Hymns and songs are taken from the 1921 edition of Sacred Songs and Solos, Twelve Hundred Hymns compiled under the direction of Ira D. Sankey (1840‒1908).

All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the copyright owner of this abridged edition.

Table of Contents

Cover

About the Book

About the Author

Sankey’s Original Preface

Publisher’s Note

Abide With Me

All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name

Almost Persuaded

Art Thou Weary?

At the Cross

Beautiful River

Beneath the Cross of Jesus

Blessed Assurance

Come, Thou Fount

Consecration: Take my Life

Doxology: Praise God, from Whom All Blessings Flow

Even Me

God Be With You

Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah

Hallelujah, what a Saviour

He Leadeth Me

Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty

How Firm a Foundation

I am Praying for You

I am Thine, O Lord

I Gave My Life for Thee

I Hear the Saviour Say

I Need Thee Every Hour

I Will Sing of My Redeemer

I Will Sing the Wondrous Story

It is Well with My Soul

I’ve Found a Friend

Jesus, Lover of My Soul

Jesus Loves Even Me

Jesus Loves Me

Jewels: When He cometh

Just as I Am

Lead, Kindly Light

Let the Lower Lights be Burning

Moment by Moment

My Jesus, I Love Thee

Nearer, My God to Thee

Nothing but the Blood of Jesus

O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing

O God, Our Help

Pass Me Not

Rock of Ages

Safe in the Arms of Jesus

Sun of My Soul

Sweet By-and-By

Take Me as I Am

Take Time to be Holy

Tell Me the Old, Old Story

That will be Heaven for Me

The Lily of the Valley

The Ninety and Nine

There is a Green Hill

The Solid Rock

What a Friend we have in Jesus

When I survey the Wondrous Cross

When the Roll is Called up Yonder

Whosoever Will

Wonderful Words of Life

Work, for the Night is Coming

Yield Not to Temptation

About White Tree Publishing

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About the Author

Ira David Sankey was born in Pennsylvania in August, 1908. He both wrote and sang Christian hymns and songs to great effect. He is generally associated with the preaching of Dwight L. Moody in both America and Britain in the latter part of the nineteenth century. Sankey’s style of music was an innovation in church services and missions, and many of his pieces are still well known.

Sankey and Moody worked together from 1870 onwards, until Moody’s death in 1899. Sankey saw to the singing, using his own work and compositions by well-known writers such as Fanny Crosby, Major Daniel W. Whittle, and Philip Bliss. Ira D. Sankey is perhaps best known for his two books, Sacred Songs and Solos and Gospel Hymns and Sacred Songs.

After Moody's death, Sankey’s work was limited as he suffered from ill health, culminating in blindness. He died in 1908, leaving a rich music legacy for churches and missions today.

Sankey’s Original Preface

Since Moses and the children of Israel, on the shore of the Red Sea, sang of their deliverance from the hand of Pharaoh, saying I will sing unto the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea. There has never been any great religious movement without the use of sacred song.

Luther set all Germany ablaze with religious enthusiasm as he sang his magnificent hymn, Ein Feste Burg, in which Melanchthon and multitudes of Christian soldiers joined. In later years the church of God was thrilled by the sermons of John Wesley and the songs of his brother Charles, whose hymns are more extensively used throughout Christendom than any others.

After the Wesleys came Charles G. Finney, who, although he did not use the service of song as much as others, yet as a preacher was one of the mightiest men of his day. Later came E. P. Hammond, the children’s evangelist, who gave the praise service an especially important place in his work. Then, in 1873, God was pleased to send Mr. Moody and myself to Great Britain, where a work of grace was begun that has continued until the present day.

About the same time, Whittle and Bliss were doing a remarkable work in the United States, Bliss becoming one of the greatest song-evangelists of that age. For the last two or three years we have had the splendid campaign of Torrey and Alexander in Australia, Great Britain and America. In their work the prominent feature has been the use of praise, their most popular hymn being The Glory Song, which perhaps is the most generally used Gospel song of the day. [WTP comment: Surprisingly, not in Sankey’s original selection.]

We all agree with what Dr. Pentecost has said regarding the power of sacred song: I am profoundly sure that among the divinely ordained instrumentalities for the conversion and sanctification of the soul, God has not given a greater, besides the preaching of the Gospel, than the singing of psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. I have known a hymn to do God’s work in a soul when every other instrumentality has failed. I could not enumerate the times God has rescued and saved my soul from darkness, discouragement and weariness by the singing of a hymn, generally by bringing one to my own heart and causing me to sing it to myself. It would be easy to fill many pages with interesting facts in connection with the use of hymns in the public worship of the house of God. I have seen vast audiences melted and swayed by a simple hymn when they have been unmoved by a powerful presentation of the Gospel from the pulpit.

For many years past I have been collecting and writing up the history of hymns, and incidents connected with their composition and their use by Mr. Moody and myself, as well as by others; but in 1901, when the manuscript of these stories was almost completed, it was unfortunately destroyed in the fire that devastated the great Sanatorium at Battle Creek, Michigan, where I was at that time a guest of my friend Dr. J. H. Kellogg. In view of the regret which was expressed by my friends over this loss, and the interest taken by the people who sing our hymns, I decided to rewrite the story from memory, as far as I was able.

Ira D. Sankey. Brooklyn, New York, January, 1906

Publisher’s Note

In 1906 Ira D. Sankey wrote the story of his life, and listed many of his favorite hymns and songs. This book contains a selection of sixty from these favorites, together with his stories of how they came to be written and how they were used to bless many people. Some of Sankey’s stories are just a few lines, some a full page, and some several pages. At White Tree Publishing we have used the short paragraphs in full, and abridged the longer ones, sometimes considerably where names and events have no great relevance to the general reader.

The complete book by Ira D. Sankey, containing the story of his life and his full selection of his favorite hymns and songs, Sankey's Story of the Gospel Hymns: and of Sacred Songs and Solos 1921, is available as a reprint from several sources.

Sankey doesn’t give the words of his quoted hymns and songs, and at White Tree Publishing we have given them in full, taken Sankey’s compilation of 1200. We have also put a link for each one, so the reader can hear the music on https://www.hymnal.net/en/home. In a few cases